Wether you call it Hemp, Mary Jane, Pot, Weed; it doesn't matter. It is still Cannabis
Sativa, or cannabis for short. And it is still illegal. The use of marijuana as an
intoxicant in the United States became a problem of public concern in the 1930s.
Regulatory laws were passed in 1937, and criminal penalties were instituted for
possession and sale of the drug. "Marijuana" refers to the dried leaves and flowers of
the cannabis plant, which contains the non-narcotic chemical THC at various potencies. It
is smoked or eaten to produce the feeling of being "high." The different strains of this
herb produce different sensual effects, ranging from a sedative to a stimulant.
The term "marijuana" is a word with indistinct origins. Some believe it is derived from
the Mexican words for "Mary Jane"; others hold that the name comes from the Portuguese
word marigu-ano, which means "intoxicant". The use of marijuana in the 1960's might lead
one to surmise that marihuana use spread explosively. The chronicle of its 3,000 year
history, however, shows that this "explosion" has been characteristic only of the
contemporary scene. The plant has been grown for fiber and as a source of medicine for
several thousand years, but until 500~ AD its use as a mind-altering drug was almost
solely confined in India. The drug and its uses reached the Middle and Near East during
the next several centuries, and then moved across North Africa, appeared in Latin America
and the Caribbean, and finally entered the United States in the early decades of this
century. Marijuana can even be used as "Biomass" fuel, where the pulp (hurd) of the hemp
plant can be burned as is or processed into charcoal, methanol, methane, or gasoline.
This process is called destructive distillation, or 'pyrolysis.' Fuels made out of plants
like this are called 'biomass' fuels. This charcoal may be burned in today's coal-powered
electric generators. Methanol makes a good automobile fuel, in fact it is used in
professional automobile races. It may someday replace gasoline.
Marijuana has many medical purposes also. The cannabis extract was available as a
medicine legally in this country until 1937, and was sold as a nerve tonic-but mankind
has been using cannabis medicines much longer than that. Marijuana appears in almost
every known book of medicine written by ancient scholars and wise men. It is usually
ranked among the top medicines, called 'panaceas', a word which means 'cure-all'. The
list of diseases which cannabis can be used for includes: multiple sclerosis, cancer
treatment, AIDS (and AIDS treatment), glaucoma, depression, epilepsy, migraine headaches,
asthma, pruritis, sclerodoma, severe pain, and dystonia. This list does not even consider
the other medicines which can be made out of marijuana-these are just some of the
illnesses for which people smoke or eat whole marijuana today. There are over 60
chemicals in marijuana which may have medical uses. It is relatively easy to extract
these into food or beverage, or into some sort of lotion, using butter, fat, oil, or
alcohol. One chemical, cannabinol, may be useful to help people who cannot sleep. Another
is taken from premature buds and is called cannabidiolic acid. It is a powerful
disinfectant. Marijuana dissolved in rubbing alcohol helps people with the skin disease
herpes control their sores, and a salve like this was one of the earliest medical uses
for cannabis. The leaves were once used in bandages and a relaxing non-psychoactive
herbal tea can be made from small cannabis stems. Also cannabis, as any other biomass
fuels, are clean burning and do not increase the amount of CO2 the atmosphere, therefore
making breathing easier for may people.
Attempts at legalizing marijuana in the US going on for a long time. But just recently
two states, California and Arizona, voted to legalize it for medical purposes only, but
the US government still enforces the federal law, stating that federal law overrules
state law. As said by Dr Cliff Schaffer: "In all my study and review of the information
regarding this issue, one question keeps coming back to me. Let's assume - for the sake
of argument - that marijuana has no medical value whatsoever, despite the fact that it
has a several thousand year history of medical use and that a prescription drug is made
from its primary active ingredient. Let's assume - for the sake of argument - that all
these medical marijuana patients are just fooling themselves. Even in that case, what
would we stand to gain as a society by punishing sick people and putting them through an
already overloaded criminal justice system? Even if they are deluding themselves-
what benefit is there to prosecuting sick people?"
In conclusion to this, it is important to state that there have been hundreds of studies
showing that smoking cannabis is potentially harmful to the brain and body and the same
number of studies almost, if not totally, contradicting what these have stated.
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